Chapter Fourteen #2
"I knew it was complicated, and I didn't want to worry you about something that might not even happen."
"Something that might not happen," I say, my voice getting steadier as my anger builds. "Jason, this is professional hockey. This is everything you've been working for. Of course it's going to happen."
"It's not guaranteed—"
"Are you seriously going to stand there and tell me you're not considering this opportunity?" I interrupt.
Jason is quiet for a moment, and his silence is answer enough.
"You are," I continue. "You're considering leaving school, leaving the team, leaving me, for hockey."
"It's not that simple—"
"Actually, it is that simple," I say, surprised by how calm my voice sounds when everything inside me is falling apart. "You have to choose between hockey and everything else, and you're choosing hockey."
"That's not fair," Jason protests. "This isn't just about hockey. This is about my future, my career, everything I've dreamed about since I was a kid."
"And what about us? What about the future we talked about? What about the relationship we just took to the next level literally yesterday?"
"Us" Jason looks stricken. "Violet, you're the most important thing in my life—"
"No, I'm not," I interrupt, and saying it out loud makes something break inside my chest. "Because if I were the most important thing in your life, you would have told me about this immediately.
You would have wanted to discuss it with me, figure out what it means for us together.
Instead, you kept it secret and made unilateral decisions about our future. "
"I haven't made any decisions—"
"Haven't you? Because according to my sources, your agent needs an answer tonight. Tonight, Jason. Which means you've been considering this seriously enough to let it get to deadline without once thinking to include me in the conversation."
Jason's face goes pale. "How do you know about the deadline?"
"Does it matter? The point is that you've been lying to me about something that affects both of us, and I had to find out from someone else."
"Who told you?" Jason asks, and there's something sharp in his voice now.
"Madison."
"Madison," Jason repeats, and his expression shifts to something like anger. "You're getting relationship advice from Madison?"
"I'm getting information that my boyfriend should have given me," I shoot back. "Information about whether our relationship even has a future."
"Of course we have a future—"
"Do we? Because it sounds like your future involves moving to Charlotte for professional hockey, and my future involves finishing my engineering degree here. How exactly does that work?"
Jason is quiet, and his silence tells me everything I need to know.
"You haven't thought about us at all, have you?" I continue. "You've been so focused on this opportunity that you haven't even considered what it means for the relationship you claimed was the most important thing in your life."
"That's not true," Jason says, but he doesn't sound convinced.
"Isn't it. Because if you had been thinking about us, you would have told me immediately.
You would have wanted to figure out solutions together, maybe discuss long-distance possibilities or alternative timelines.
Instead, you kept it secret and let me find out from Madison, which makes it seem like you were already planning to end things and just hadn't figured out how. "
"I wasn't planning to end things," Jason says desperately. "I love you, Violet. Yesterday meant everything to me."
"If yesterday meant everything to you, then why didn't you trust me enough to share the most important decision of your life?"
Jason doesn't have an answer for that, and his silence feels like confirmation of everything I've been thinking.
"I need some time to process this," I say finally, taking a step back.
"Violet, please. Let me explain—"
"Explain what? That you lied to me? That you're considering abandoning everything we built together for a hockey opportunity? That you trusted Madison with information about our relationship before you trusted me?"
"I didn't trust Madison with anything—"
"She knew, Jason. She knew before I did, which means information about your life is circulating among people who don't care about you while the person who loves you gets lied to."
I can see Jason struggling to find the right words, but there aren't any. Because the fundamental issue isn't what he says now—it's what he didn't say yesterday, or this morning, or any of the hours in between when he had the chance to include me in this decision.
"I think you should take the opportunity," I say quietly.
Jason looks shocked. "What?"
"I think you should take the hockey opportunity. It's what you want, it's what you've worked for, and clearly it's more important to you than anything else."
"That's not true—"
"It is true, Jason. And that's okay. I understand that hockey is your dream, your priority, your future. I just wish you had been honest about that instead of making me think I might be part of it."
"You are part of it," Jason says desperately. "Violet, you're everything to me."
"No," I say sadly. "I'm the thing you love when it's convenient, when it doesn't conflict with hockey. But when you have to choose, you choose hockey. And honestly? I respect that. I just can't be with someone who sees our relationship as secondary to everything else."
I turn to walk away, but Jason calls after me.
"Violet, wait. Please. Let me fix this."
I stop and turn back to look at him, this incredible man who I fell in love with, who I trusted with everything, who just broke my heart with his choices.
"Some things can't be fixed, Jason," I say softly. "Some things are just... broken."
And then I walk away, leaving him sitting on our bench, and I don't look back.
Because looking back would only confirm what I already know: that sometimes love isn't enough when people's priorities don't align.